Chocolate Donuts with Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

Baked chocolate donuts are topped with fresh strawberry cream cheese icing. Pretty and delicious, these will be a new breakfast favorite!

It is time for another Mystery Dish post! This month, Allie from Baking a Moment picked a fun list of celebratory ingredients for us. They were Champagne, Strawberries, Oranges, Beets, Filet Mignon, Lobster, Cream, Chocolate, Rosewater, and Rice. Since champagne, lobster, and filet mignon aren’t in my usual cooking repertoire, I’m not really sure what rosewater is, and I am not a fan of beets, I decided to go with what I know and love – chocolate and strawberries! It doesn’t get much better than that. Especially when combined in a baked donut – chocolate donuts with strawberry cream cheese icing to be exact!

Donuts are one of my favorite things to bake. It all started with these pumpkin doughnuts – and I haven’t looked back since. Baked donuts are so easy, so pretty, and so delicious! So when I picked chocolate and strawberry for my Mystery Dish ingredients, I knew that I wanted to create delicious chocolate donuts to share with you.

First up – the base for the chocolate donuts. The “dough” part of this donut is pure chocolate cake perfection. I used buttermilk, which is a secret ingredient in baking. It keeps cake recipes so light and moist. I then stirred in rich cocoa powder (this one from King Arthur Flour is my absolute favorite) to make the dough nice and chocolately, and just to reinforce the chocolate flavor, I added some mini chocolate chips at the end!

Next, the icing! Strawberries are my absolute favorite fruit. I love their bright, sweet flavor. The fresh strawberries in this icing taste amazing with the tangy cream cheese (of course powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla only help things out). This icing was so good! Seriously, I was licking the bowl clean. Plus you can’t beat the gorgeous pink color. These would be perfect for Valentine’s day. If your icing isn’t looking pink enough for your liking, feel free to stir in a drop of red food coloring. I won’t tell.

And finally, the topping! After you ice your chocolate donuts, you can sprinkle them with whatever you like. Valentine’s sprinkles, fresh strawberries, mini chocolate chips, chocolate sprinkles – it is so much fun to play around with different toppings.

Look at all the other amazing dishes that my Mystery Dish friends made! Everyone is so talented – I can’t wait to try out some of their recipes!

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg and whisk until combined. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla, and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined - do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the doughnut pan, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 7-8 minutes - try not to over bake. The donut will be slightly springy to the touch, but will still look moist and shiny.

Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Icing:

Puree the strawberries in a mini food processor until smooth.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until creamy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat until well incorporated. Add the strawberry puree, vanilla, and salt and beat well. Taste the icing and add more sugar until desired flavor and consistency is reached. If the icing seems too thin, you can add in more sugar or cream cheese.

Using a butter knife or offset spatula, ice each donut, and decorate as desired.

[…] Chocolate Donuts with Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing from Chez Catey Lou Best Ever Banana Bread (Gluten Free, Vegan) from The Healthy Maven Now for keeping it real … I walked around all afternoon Friday, with one of my shirts buttons unbuttoned. The shirt was patterned and it was closer to the bottom, but really people. I’m hoping no one noticed, but if you did, make me aware of my wardrobe malfunctions next time, okay?! Oh yeah, and then spending 30 minutes straightening my hair and then ending up pinning it half up. This happens any time I try to do my hair. #neverworks Remember I told you that I never can get my hair to look the same way after my hair stylist cuts it? […]